SOS ALBANIA: Court system used to hush up the opposition

 Global View

It seems that the government of Sali Berisha has found new ways to crack down on the opposition: using civil court system to penalize financially socialist members of parliament on defamation charges against PD representatives.

Socialist PM Saimir Tahiri was ordered Monday by a civil court in Tirana to pay $33,000 to his female colleague, Albana Vokshi, as damage in a suit she brought against Tahiri on charges of slander. Tahiri is the second socialist representative to be penalized on same charges after another PM, Eduard Shalsi, was ordered by court, two months ago, to pay $10,000 to the same individual, who has been rumored to have used unfair competition and unlawful practices to win bids in various areas of business activity. Albana Vokshi and her domestic partner, Arjan Tartari, are known to have close ties with prime minister Berisha.

It’s weird enough that the judge who tried the case has the same last name as the plaintiff, Vokshi, which in Albanian proves that they are somehow related.  His name is Asim Vokshi and originates from the same area in Kosovo.

Lawsuits by the same PD deputy are pending for ten other PS representatives and the court will most likely rule against the latter. Ms. Vokshi is expecting to generate half a million dollars from her lawsuits, a great reward for a woman popularly known to be one of most corrupt officials in Albania. In this case the courts are serving Vokshi as a way of extorting money from the political opponents and simultaneously give clear messages to the opposition to hush or they will be financially ruined.

Albanian government and its head, Sali Berisha, are doing nothing more than act like in an authoritarian system, where courts serves the ruler’s purposes. Now, officials, rumored for involvement in illicit activities have found gold mines in using courts to make them rich quickly. 

It’s time the international community did something to stop this madness before it’s too late. If there is nothing they can do in this regard, what, then, are they good for when elections are rigged right before their eyes, protesters get killed by the National Guard, political opponents are assassinated on regular basis, judges get blown up in broad daylight, opposition is denigrated and abused verbally and physically, miners get killed one week after starting work, the President and Prosecutor General are called “street thugs and whores” by the prime minister and the list going on and on?  Ah, they are good for a never-abided-by electoral code.